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Nov 5th, 2008 at 18:07:06 - Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) |
Finally running through the entire game, I can assess its direction as a moral investigation of two very disturbed boys. Their demented acts of violence are curiously as horrific when played out by the player, even in the more bizarre setting of a traditional Japanese RPG. The aftermath in Hell was rather unexpected, and spelt a certain kind of commentary on behalf of the game's designer.
To what end does this game preach against violence? It doesn't. It doesn't speak out against videogame violence, either, and certainly does not suggest that videogame violence influences young, malleable minds (even if equipping the Doom PC game gives you better accuracy). What it does do is beckons the player to pit him/herself in the shoes of two madmen and see things from their perspective. You don't have to agree with it; I know I didn't. But as a medium for analysis and serious contemplation of the psychology of the Columbine shootings, Super Columbine Massacre RPG serves as a robust opinion on the real media's portrayal of videogame violence, its influence in teenage angst, and how it feels as a gamer to use it within an environment that mimics something of the real world.
Super Columbine Massacre RPG creates a disturbing, if not whole-heartedly serious, reality to which all other videogames with an agenda ought to appreciate before churning pixels.
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Nov 5th, 2008 at 12:42:28 - Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) |
Another session of Super Columbine Massacre RPG left me even more jaded about the whole affair. After stumbling around aimlessly, I finally came to my senses and figured out how to equip the bombs in the cafeteria and watch as they failed to go off. This, of course, pressures you into the combat area of the game.
Running around and approaching random classmates (which prompts a traditional RPG turn-based mode) hardly felt good. Their youthful pixelated selves were quite innocent and reassuringly innocuous, so it was ever more difficult to fire rounds into their pitiful health bars. Even more disturbing was choice to keep their corpses littered where you approached them on the actual navigational map. The idea here is to convey a sense of bloodshed in your tracks. Programming the kids to run around aimlessly makes it a dodging game, and you inevitably must kill them (there are no options to do otherwise).
Super Columbine Massacre RPG is hardly an RPG in the traditional sense, but it certainly pits you in a linear role, driving you ever more deeply down a path you cannot escape. So while you are role-playing as Reb (for the most part), you really must fulfill his part in the Columbine shootings. There is little other choice in completing the game.
This inescapable approach to victory easily transcends the ethics practiced in the game when we consider it (as I mentioned in a previous post) as a videogames documentary. We further delve into the pathos of these two characters (reflecting real people). THere are several elements of media scattered about the game: the Doom PC accessory, Marilyn Manson CD, etc., and everything is handled with a sense of sarcasm and insincerity. Playing through the majority of the game, we hardly find that these games and music influenced the two antogonists -- instead, we are directed to believe that they were also victims of Columbine. Feeling left out at lunch, loners in the hallway; the game continually throws flashbacks at the player, beckoning them to think about how Reb and Vodka played out a typical day at school. The game does not suggest that these reasons are sufficient for commiting the crimes that they (and you, as the player) execute, but it is merely a means through which to sculpt them as people. This is the same kind of artistic mentality that drives many a documentary.
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Nov 5th, 2008 at 01:14:03 - Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC) |
I began Super Columbine Massacre RPG with a great deal of cynicism and animosity: here was the poster child of all the media's angst, constant controversy, and -- according to so many -- the pinnacle of unethical videogames. At this point, I was jaded, and figured this would be another run-of-the-mill, misunderstood Grand Theft Auto wrapped in RPG Maker clothing.
While it didn't completely turn my opinion around, it did enlighten me to the bitter sarcasms and artful intent of the maker. Reb and Vodka are infamous for their crimes at Columbine high school. Here we see them in pixel form, but we are watching them through the lens of what could be considered the first videogame documentary. This is perhaps the intent of the creator: to put the gamer in the shoes of two notorious high schoolers before and after they commit the crimes we've all grown to know. But before this game, we perhaps hadn't known them so intimately.
Delving where most documents find themselves, Super Columbine Massacre begins the day of the event. As a gamer, you feel slightly morose that you are in control of one of these "characters," and slowly but surely, you know exactly where you are heading and exactly what you are about to do with your mouse and keyboard. In a sense, you are bound to represent two murderers, and commit the crimes yourself. This is disconcerting, and rides on the back of your mind through the painfully slow and ambiguous first few stages.
Building the backstory seemed to be key, and this is where the game pits you: at Reb's house, investigating his basement, picking up a few accessories (which cleverly give you increases for accuracy, etc., depending on the object), and the prompting of a flashback. These elements attempt to craft the mindset of the antagonists, and the flashbacks continue to be prompted through the rest of the game in important or relevant rooms. Do I feel any more sympathy, or any different in general, to these two high schoolers? After a good 30 minutes of playing, not really.
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Oct 6th, 2008 at 01:07:30 - Grand Theft Auto IV (360) |
Third Session:
At this point, I felt compelled to dally around the city, picking up a nice car to speed the streets, view the parks, narrowly avoid crashing into fellow automobiles, and attempt to obey the law. The tricky part about following the law, especially when you are driving a vehicle, is the control scheme: it is so very easy to accelerate too quickly, and fairly difficult to make turns without banging into a car on the opposite side of the street. Since you, as the player, feel no real accountability, there isn't much to fret if you do indeed hit another car, but there is a sense of frustration with the inability to successfully follow the law.
During my scouting of the city, it's quite clear the developers painted a canvas of overtly stereotypical urbanites. From vagabonds to pimps to jocks, Liberty City is run amuck with a colorful, interactive populace. The sound quips from some of these, especially the seedy park types, are really cliched variants of city punks and the like. Does it stimulate some kind of resentment on the part of the player? I suppose it could. There may be some underpinning psychological tendency to slug a few of these guys, especially if you are negatively drawn to their caricature, but for the most part they are just another piece of the Liberty City clockwork. And each one can just as easily be on the opposite end of my pistol's barrel.
Trudging through the missions always leaves me desiring time to just play around in the world. This is usually why I find myself writing logs concerning the virtual mechanics of the city, and not so much the concerns of the actual game's missions. At the end of the day, I'm not so much bothering myself over the racial, moral, and political dimensions of the game -- while they are certainly present, it's always the playability of an open world that draws my attention than the amateurish attempts at stimulating ethical accountability. I like to play GTA IV facetiously: to me, regardless of my opinion on how morally inappropriate it may be to do in real life, few things in videogames are as satisfying as positioning oneself atop a building and placing the corsair of my sniper tightly around a mindlessly walking pedestrian. And maybe that's the point -- should I feel sick about pulling the trigger and in cold blood murdering some innocent lady dawdling down the sidewalk after work? I sure feel sick writing about it, but when you're in a virtual game world and there are no real world consequences (only the sense of feeling sick and knowing you've done wrong), not much prevents you from enjoying it.
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Pwilliams has been with GameLog for 16 years, 1 month, and 18 days |
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